Tieri and Pizzari Keep It Weirdworld in New ‘Black Knight’ Ongoing Series

Following the news of a Hercules relaunch earlier this week, Marvel has unveiled a second upcoming solo series starring an Avenger with a European mythological bent; Dane Whitman, the Black Knight, will star in his own ongoing series from the creative team of Frank Tieri and Luca Pizzari.

Speaking exclusively to Newsarama for the reveal, Tieri explained that the series will see Whitman struggling with his addiction to his cursed sword, the powerful and corrupting Ebony Blade.

"Really, we’re trying to do a book that’s unlike any that’s out there. And definitely not something you’d really expect from a Black Knight series. Sure there’ll be sword and sorcery and all that stuff but it’s really more than that. At it’s heart, Black Knight will be about one man’s struggle with what I call a 'necessary addiction'."

Intriguingly, the story will be set in Weirdworld, which confirms that at least one part of Secret Wars' Battleworld will carry over into the new Marvel Universe. Whether it's going to be a normalized area of the map or a strange pocket like the Savage Land has not been established. But it will have dragons and mythic warriors.

Tieri, who has written Black Knight previously in New Excalibur and Original Sins, explained to Newsarama what makes Red Skull artist Luca Pizzari a great fit for the book; "[T]his is a darker Dane than we’re used to, a Dane that’s a tad more dangerous --- and Luca’s got a nice gritty style that really fits that. He’s really an ideal artist for what we want to do with this book."

As a choice of lead for a solo series, Black Knight seems like a surprising outlier --- he's never had an ongoing before, only a four-issue mini-series in 1990. The book most likely owes its existence to Tieri's specific attachment to the character. That suggests there's opportunity for other relatively minor characters to break out at Marvel if they have the right talent in their corner. If there's room for a Black Knight series in All-New All-Different Marvel, maybe we'll see an announcement for a Miss America series or a Northstar series next.